Issue 5, 2019, Journal of Civil Engineering and Architecture-16-27

D
Journal of Civil Engineering and Architecture 13 (2019) 293-304
doi: 10.17265/1934-7359/2019.05.002
DAVID
PUBLISHING
Water Stress in Temperate Dry Climate of the Baja
California North and Use Rainwater
Francisco Fernández Melchor, Marcos Eduardo Gonzalez Trevizo and Julio Cesar Rincón Martínez
Facultad de Ingeniería, Arquitectura y Diseño (Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Desing), Universidad Autónoma de Baja
California (Baja California Autonomous University), Ensenada BC 22860, Mexico
Abstract: The growth of urban centers in Mexico and the consequent demand for services and overexploitation of their watersheds
and aquifers, these being insufficient to cover the demand for drinking water in different cities, and areas with dry climates and poor
rainfall are mostly affected. The case study where this research is concentrated is located in the city of Ensenada, where the demand
for greater capacity in general basic services such as drinking water supply has created a greater problem when the availability of this
resource is very limited by the climatic conditions and the natural environment in arid zones as it is in the North of Baja California.
In this research we propose the design and installation of a rainwater collection system, with economic materials and common use
that any inhabitant can acquire for their implementation in their own home. In this sense, dissemination has been promoted about the
advantages of using natural resources based on collective awareness, emphasizing the scientific dissemination of knowledge. For this
last point the moderation of the use of rainwater is made to cover the domestic demand for water through a rain collection system
installed in a house of average family.
Key words: Ecotechnologies, rainwater harvesting, average precipitation.
1. Introduction
The city of Ensenada is located in the
Hydrological-Administrative Region 1 of the Baja
California Peninsula (RHA I PBC) with less annual
average precipitation, being 77% lower than the
national average [1]. Its main water problem lies in
the overexploitation of its basins and aquifers, which
are insufficient to cover the demand for drinking
water in the city.
In general terms, in the RHA I PBC, the population
that does not have drinking water coverage is 256,476
inhabitants [1]. The problem is evident in the cities,
however many of these thousands of inhabitants are
located in rural areas where the coverage of services
and hydraulic infrastructure is impossible in the short
term, keeping a large number of people without this
vital liquid.
Corresponding author: Francisco Fernandez Melchor,
professor, research field: architecture and environment. E-mail:
Francisco.fernandez.melchor@uabc.edu.mx.
The total population of the city of Ensenada alone
is 298,967 inhabitants with an annual growth rate of
3.5% [2], while its total area is 51,952.30 km2, of
which the urban area has only 61.07 km2, and it
concentrates 65.7% of the total population [2], a
situation that causes urban problems where the
shortage of water stands out due to its limited and
increasingly inadequate water network.
The scarce rain in the region increases in the months
of December to March, reaching moderate rainfall
with a maximum of 62.3 mm in the month of March,
while its average annual rainfall is only 257.5 mm [3]
referring to the characteristics of a predominantly dry
area. Its climate is classified as dry Mediterranean
with an average annual temperature of 16 °C.
Within the criteria of urban design according to the
climatic characteristics and specifically to what refers
to precipitation, the annual 250 mm of rain marks a
limit that indicates “low precipitation” as an indicator
[4], where the problem of water scarcity points out a
marked importance in the use of rainwater, making
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Water Stress in Temperate Dry Climate of the Baja California North and Use Rainwater
adaptations to the design that mainly promote
rainwater harvesting.
Despite the characteristic dry climate and the
problem of water supply, the population that makes up
the city of Ensenada does not show a concern, nor
awareness of the importance that lies in the use of
limited water resources as it would be the collection
of rainwater through simple home systems of
rainwater harvesting [5]. On the contrary, the problem
falls on the State Commission of Public Services of
Ensenada (CESPE) indicating it as a commission that
does not provide an efficient service.
Fig. 1
The phenomenon of meteorological drought.
2. Method and Materials
2.1 Regional Characteristics
The climate of the Baja California Peninsula is
generally dry and warm, with temperate parts in the
northern subregion (where Ensenada is located) and in
the mountain areas.
To this climate with little precipitation is added the
phenomenon of meteorological drought [6] occurs
when there is a significant decrease in precipitation
with respect to the annual average and that lasts
several months or years as in Fig. 1.
Water Stress in Temperate Dry Climate of the Baja California North and Use Rainwater
The main effects of this phenomenon are in
agriculture and livestock, with serious socio-economic
consequences for the rural and urban population.
This phenomenon can bring multiple repercussions
that go from the deterioration of agricultural
production, the loss of crops and the scarcity of food;
reduction of industrial activity, which affects the
generation of few jobs; deterioration of public health,
caused by the poor hygiene, famine and mortality of
the population, particularly children and the elderly;
generation of massive migrations from the rural area
to the cities in search of food and work, which in turn
generates an oversupply of resources in the cities,
which transforms into unemployment, crime and
insecurity. According to reports from the Public
Registry of Water Rights (REPDA) the main use of
water in Baja California is in the agricultural sector
with 80% of the volume concession, followed by
public-urban and domestic supply with 12%, the use
for thermoelectric plants 5%, industrial use with 2%
and other uses 1%, as in Fig. 2.
This research focuses on the second place that
includes domestic use, which is very important
because of the number of inhabitants of the city.
If to the city of Ensenada, neighboring towns
Fig. 2
The main use of water in Baja California.
295
belonging to the municipality are added, the number
of inhabitants increases to 486,639 inhabitants, of
which 49.8% are men and 50.2 are women.
For this reason the region is limited in its supply of
surface and underground water, mainly due to the
high consumption of water for irrigation and the waste
of domestic, urban and commercial water, as well as
water losses in the municipal hydraulic system. In
addition, there is a lack of infrastructure to take
advantage of the water from streams and rivers, as
well as rainwater; and there is no water culture in the
region, as well as a lack of environmental education.
To meet the demand for water it has been required
to extract large volumes of aquifers, which has caused
a serious problem of overexploitation and
groundwater contamination; which is presented in
eight of the aquifers of the so-called “Zona Costa”,
where the agricultural valleys of Maneadero, Camalú,
Ojos Negros, Valle de la Trinidad, Valle de
Guadalupe, Colonia Vicente Guerrero, Ensenada and
San Quintín are located as in Fig. 3.
According to indicators of the last census at the
state level, the coverage of rural drinking water
amounted to 72.9% and the urban coverage to 95.1%.
While in the case of Ensenada the coverage of drinking
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Water Stress in Temperate Dry Climate of the Baja California North and Use Rainwater
Fig. 3
Aquifer problems.
Fig. 4
Coverage of drinking water.
Water Stress in Temperate Dry Climate of the Baja California North and Use Rainwater
water in the rural area exceeds by very little 60%
and the urban almost covers 100% (Fig. 4).
The dispersion of the population in rural areas
causes technical difficulties for the supply and
operation of drinking water, sewage and sanitation
services, so their coverage is lower than in the urban
area. For this reason in this research, the alternative of
using rainwater that could contribute to water supply
in rural areas is studied.
The current growth of Ensenada and the demand for
housing, according to the population census indicate
that there are 143,169 private homes inhabited by
481,431 occupants, of which 92.87% are houses;
2.86% apartment in buildings; 2.18% neighborhood;
1.43% other type of housing and 0.66% are not
specified. The characteristics and typology of the
houses are of marked relevance since it depends on
the viability of the use of rainwater through roofs.
Of this total of homes in Ensenada, 7.25% have a
room; 17.64% two rooms; 23.29% three rooms;
23.94% four rooms; 15.17% five rooms; 12.66% six
or more rooms and 0.04% are not specified. With
these data it can be seen that the highest percentage of
homes in the municipality has three and four rooms,
which account for the roof area, where rainwater
would be captured.
The materials used in the construction of the walls
in the houses are 0.19% cardboard and waste materials;
0.97% earth, sheet or palm; 17.75% wood or adobe;
80.94% partition, brick, block, stone, cement or
concrete; and 0.14% are not specified. While the
materials in cover are 0.33% cardboard and scrap
materials; 58.41% metal sheet or asbestos, palm or
straw; 0.29% wooden beams and roof; 40.72%
concrete slab or joist with vault; and 0.25% are not
specified.
Taking into account the prevalence of house in the
city ranging from one to two floors, the dimensions of
this according to the spaces that compose it, as well as
the materials that constructively constitute walls and
roofs, they allow us to conclude that the addition of a
297
rainwater collector can be useful to cover part of the
demand for drinking water by the occupants of these
homes.
These homes for their availability and access to
water according to INEGI data of the total of these
481,431 houses, 91.89% has piped water and 8.09%
of the remaining water is obtained by hauling of
which 1.44% is through a community outlet and
7.99% comes from somewhere else. Of this total,
which corresponds to water per carry, 86.75% comes
from a pipe; 2.30% of a well; 0.33% of rivers or lakes;
while the collection of rainwater in Ensenada is not
used at all.
2.2 General Purpose
Design, characterization and implementation of a
pluvial water collection system adapted to the
configuration of a social interest property
characteristic of the city of Ensenada for the measure
of its contribution to the necessary supply of water
demand in the common activities of a home.
After a representative period of time of
measurement, said pluvial system and the results
obtained, it is proposed that these serve to be
presented in talks, conferences and meetings where its
main audience is young people and children; in order
to create an awareness of the importance of taking
advantage of the limited water resources of the city.
2.3 Specific Objectives
The specific objectives that make up the research
project on water stress, and rainwater harvesting are
the following:
 Choice of a representative dwelling of the city of
Ensenada from a statistical study that determines the
characteristics and specific dimensions of this.
 Survey and description of the house, hydraulic
characteristics and calculation of the demand for
drinking water.
 Measurement of the rainfall regime in
representative periods of the year through equipment
Water Stress in Temperate Dry Climate of the Baja California North and Use Rainwater
298
and physical instruments and by processing
standardized climate data.
 Design and characterization of a drinking water
collection system adapted based on the formal
architectural attributes of the home and its adequate
sizing for the collection based on rainfall analysis.
 Measurement of the contribution and water
supply of the rainwater collection system
accompanied by a comparative study with the regular
demand of the potable water service in a house.
 Processing of data and preparation of material for
dissemination (presentations, congress and posters).
2.4 Goals
The goals represent the completion and fulfillment
of the specific objectives set out in the research
project:
 Attend to the problem of water stress in the most
disadvantaged society, offering a self-built practical
solution.
 Involve students of the educational program of
Architecture Universidad Autónoma de Baja
California (UABC) Ensenada in the design and
characterization of a rainwater collection system.
 Presentation of the data obtained from the
performance of the model carried out and the
constructive theoretical methodology used.
Fig. 5
House in Vista Hermosa colony.
 Through scientific dissemination, inform and
raise awareness in society about the benefits of the use
of resources, as well as the collection of rainwater.
 Realization of the pluvial water collection system
model with materials commonly used in construction
and recycling, developing a simple manual of viable
construction and applicable to any economy.
2.5 Design Variables
For this research we have a social interest housing
(Casas Geo BC) located in Calle Hierro No. 214,
Vista Hermosa colony.
Dimensions of the property: 115 m2 (20 × 5.77 m).
Construction: 55 m2.
Description: 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, living room,
kitchen, garage and service patio (Fig. 5).
The first point is to determine the amount of rainfall,
which is defined as the hydrometeor that falls from
the sky and reaches the earth’s surface in the form of
rain, drizzle, snow, haze or hail, and is measured in
mm, whose equivalence is placed on a flat and
impermeable surface of 1 m2 and the quantity in liters
of the thickness of precipitated water [7].
The supply of rainwater is defined by the average
monthly amount of rainwater or annual in mm per m2.
These data will be obtained from the climatological
normals of the National Meteorological System.
Water Stress in Temperate Dry Climate of the Baja California North and Use Rainwater
The demand for rainwater is the amount of rainfall
needed for a family to cover their needs for cleaning
patios, washing floors, watering gardens, flushing
toilets, etc. This amount of water will be calculated
according to:
 Number of users (on average the family in the
city of Ensenada is composed of 3.6 people [9].
 Number of days of the month endowment
(L/person-day) (150 L were considered in the
calculation).
2.6 Calculation Model
The calculation model starts with a list of
consumption liters per piece of furniture and per
activity that requires water supply as shown in Table 1.
The consumption per piece of furniture is
multiplied by the number of occupants of the house
(3.6 persons) and this result in turn by the number of
days of each month to obtain the monthly
consumption.
A differentiation is made between non-substitutable
drinking water such as shower, dishwashing, personal
Table 1
Table 2
hygiene, cooking and drinking; and the replaceable
rainwater as the toilet tank, garden irrigation, cleaning
and car washing.
Once the consumption is determined, it is important
to count the cover area that will serve to capture the
rainwater that in the case studied is 45.73 m2.
The standardized data of rainfall must be included
in the calculation model to determine the amount of
water that can be obtained by abstraction in the roof
area, this normalized data averages 10-year minimum
monthly data are presented in Table 2 and correspond
to the meteorological station of SMN located in the air
base of the city of Ensenada.
With this information, both of consumption, as of
occupants, as well as of the normal data of average
monthly precipitation; we can estimate the total water
demand for the house using an equation [7] that is
presented as Eq. (1):
Di = Nu × Nd × Dot/1,000
(1)
3
Di: monthly demand (m );
Nu: number of users or people;
Nd: number of days of the month analyzed.
Water consumption lts/person/day.
Restroom sink
Toilet
Watering can
Sink
Washed
Cleaning
25 L
20 L
32 L
18 L
40 L
12 L
Average monthly precipitation.
Month
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
299
Rain (mm)
24
65
26
14
4
3
5
3
5
20
26
25
300
Water Stress in Temperate Dry Climate of the Baja California North and Use Rainwater
2.7 Development of the Model
The main components of the model implemented,
as in Fig. 6, as rainwater collection system [8] are the
following:
(1) The rooftop;
(2) The gutters and downpipe;
(3) Sheet filter;
(4) Water tank.
(1) The roof. It is recommended not to have pets,
plants or to use it in any other way. The roof should
be washed before the rainy seasons and during these,
striving to sweep thoroughly to ensure cleanliness of
Fig. 6
Components of rainwater collection system.
Fig.7
The roof and gutter.
the collected water. In this case, a row of bricks were
placed on the edges of the roof to carry the water over
a single drop of water on which a gutter was placed,
as in Fig. 7.
(2) Gutter and downspout. These lead the collected
rainwater to the container tank. It is advisable to keep
the gutter and drainpipe clean and treeless, as in Fig. 8.
(3) Sheet filter. This is usually a mesh that prevents
the fall of leaves or garbage to the deposit.
(4) Water tank. This intercepts the first rains. In this
investigation, the deposit is 200 L and in this the
amount of rainwater use was made, and the system
was finished up to this point, as in Fig. 9. In the case
Water Stress in Temperate Dry Climate of the Baja California North and Use Rainwater
Fig. 8
Gutter and downspout.
Fig. 9
Water tank.
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Water Stress in Temperate Dry Climate of the Baja California North and Use Rainwater
302
of having a cistern of rainwater, this deposit serves to
separate the dirt from the rains and send it clean to the
cistern [9].
3. Results and Discussions
The calculation of monthly consumption shows an
approximate figure of 15,876 liters if a month is
contemplated with 30 days, this amount of drinking
water being the amount needed to cover the needs of a
house with 3.4 occupants. This total in liters
represents 100% of the demand for this vital liquid.
The roof area of 45.73 m2 depending on the amount
of monthly rainfall could get a certain amount of
water to be used in the home. If we observe the month
with the most amount of rain, which is February with
a precipitation of 65 mm, it is possible to obtain up to
2,972.45 liters which would represent 76.29% of the
total water substitutable by rainwater and that the
house would use for flushing the toilet, cleaning of
patios and irrigation of gardens among others.
In the case of dry months with very little or no rain,
as it is from May to September, the rainwater
collection and utilization system would have a low
performance of 42% of the substitutable water,
obtaining rain or fog as shown in Table 3.
The city of Ensenada has a temperate dry climate,
reason why the rain in this region is scarce; if the
water intake is compared with the total monthly
Table 3
demand, rainwater represents a low percentage. In the
case of the month with more rain, the use of this only
represents 19.82% of the total demand; while the
month with less rain could only provide 0.91% of the
total water demand.
After the analysis of the calculated rainwater
collection, the amount of rain was measured with a
rainfall meter installed in a meteorological station, as
in Fig. 10.
The months with the highest record were chosen in
terms of the amount of rain, the months analyzed were
February and March, as shown in Table 4. It should be
noted that these months of 2018 had a lower amount
of rain than that obtained from normal data.
The month of February 2018 was four days with
rain, on the 27th of that month, the day with the most
rain. The full month had 20.4 mm of precipitation
according to the record of the weather station.
On the other hand, the month of March presented
seven days with rain where in some cases it was only
for less than an hour, whose day with the highest
rainfall was on March 10, accumulating only 7.6 mm
of rain throughout the month.
The results obtained from this research project will
be mainly in determining the performance of a
rainwater collection system and in measuring the
amount of water that can contribute to the needs of a
household and on the variables that can occur in both
Collected rainwater calculated.
Month
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
Collected rainwater
1,097.52 L
2,972.45 L
1,188.98 L
640.22 L
182.92 L
137.19 L
228.65 L
137.19 L
228.65 L
914.60 L
1,188.98 L
1,143.25 L
Water substitutable (%)
63.78%
76.29%
64.39%
60.73%
57.68%
57.38%
57.99%
57.38%
57.99%
62.56%
64.39%
64.09%
Total demand (%)
7.32%
19.82%
7.93%
4.27%
1.22%
0.91%
1.52%
0.91%
1.52%
6.10%
7.93%
7.62%
Water Stress in Temperate Dry Climate of the Baja California North and Use Rainwater
Fig. 10
Table 4
Weather station.
Collected rainwater measure.
Month
February
March
Fig. 11
303
Collected rainwater
932.89 L
347.55 L
Water substitutable (%)
62.68%
58.78%
Total demand (%)
6.22%
2.32%
Technical sheet.
the amount of rain throughout the year, as well as the
number of occupants of the house and its demand for
water [10].
The construction process, as well as the design and
characterization of the collection system will help the
development of an assembly manual, as in Fig. 11;
technical sheet of elements and materials that
compose it for its dissemination and that this can be
implemented in the most disadvantaged homes by the
shortage of drinking water in Ensenada.
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Water Stress in Temperate Dry Climate of the Baja California North and Use Rainwater
The design, development and dissemination of the
water that falls to the public subminister, it is essential
system will serve for a campaign of awareness and the
to have savings and use plan when this important
importance of the use of natural resources with
resource is scarce, expensive and intermittent
emphasis on the problem of water scarcity.
occasions.
4. Conclusion
References
In a house in which 150 liters of drinking water per
day per person is consumed, the total consumption
can be replaced by rainwater by up to 50%
when storing it. Rainwater can be used in flushing
toilets, watering green areas, cleaning patios, washing
cars.
The impulse of the integration of eco technologies
to cover the demand of new popular housing has been
scarce in Mexico, where the Institute of the National
Fund of Housing for Workers (INFONAVIT), as a
government agency, has promoted in its Green
Mortgage in terms of saving water, only valves
economizing in showers, sinks and sinks but not some
system of rainwater use.
The effectiveness of this type of eco technologies
lies also in the awareness and rational use of water.
The cultural and educational aspect focuses on leaving
behind the traditional housing schemes where
rainwater is not used but also contaminated and
wasted when it is led through gutters that are
connected in turn to sewers that eventually end up in
the drainage, where the rainwater is mixed with black,
soapy and residual water, completely contaminating
the rainwater.
The current growth of the cities as is the case of
Ensenada and the increase in the demand for drinking
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